Disappearing midterm election debates: Democrats dodging their opponents this year
You’ve seen the polls and the polls are now showing that the Democrats’ chances in November are about where they were a couple of weeks ago.
The good news is that the big story of the past two weeks has been the Democrats’ ability to avoid the national debates that the Republicans are not afraid to have. The bad news is that so far their strategy of avoiding the debates seems to be working.
As of today, the Democratic field is down to only three candidates in the field: former Maryland congressman John Delaney, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The two remaining candidates—California Sen. Kamala Harris and entrepreneur Andrew Yang—have declined invitations to debates that would have been a great opportunity for them to put forward a clear plan for the nation.
And while some of the people in the field are taking advantage of the opportunity not to take part in the debates, they have failed to meet the criteria put forth in the Democratic National Committee’s recent debate scheduling guidelines.
On Monday, the DNC announced that four debates would be held throughout the country in June, July and August, with the debates slated for places like Cleveland between Harris and Klobuchar, and in Austin, Texas, between former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Senator Sherrod Brown.
The debates would have been a huge opportunity for the Democrats to present what they believe is their plan to help the most vulnerable Americans and to show voters what kind of president they would make. And while some candidates appear to have already accepted the DNC guidelines for debates, the ones who haven’t are showing why it’s not enough to be the nominee.
Delaney to the debate
Delaney, a former congressman who now serves as a senior White House adviser to President Trump, is the only declared candidate in the race who hasn’t accepted the DNC’s debate criteria, which includes having 30 hours of live debate time, or as the DNC puts it, “the opportunity to be the best prepared to discuss your ideas and vision for the country, not to be interrupted by false negatives from your competitors or by other candidates.”
Delaney made an appearance on “CBS This Morning” today and said that he believes that he’s qualified to be on the debate stage, but he said he’s declining the offer because